Rapid Fire 2010-05-11: DOD Overhead

• US defense secretary Gates calls for military to focus on reducing overhead costs, which are over 40% of the budget. TRICARE medical costs are one element of that.

• South Korea finds RDX, a chemical substance used in torpedoes, on sunken ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772), a Pohang-class patrol combat corvette.

• Was Greece wrestled into buying German submarines, French FREMM frigates, and other equipment, as a quiet condition of its bailout package?

• Pakistan test fires 2 nuclear-capable missiles – the Ghaznavi with a range of 180 miles and the Shaheen with a range of 400 miles.

• IISS study: Iran makes “robust strides” in developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

• Meet Inbal Kreis, the woman in charge of Israel’s Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile development program.

• Remaining B-61 American nuclear bombs in Europe stirring controversy, security concerns at Belgium’s Kleine Brogel air base, Dutch Volkel, Germany’s Buechel, Italy’s Ghedi Torre and Aviano, and Incirlik in Turkey.

• Afghan National Army soldiers get NATO training on the M-9 pistol, M-16 rifle, M203 grenade launcher, M-249 squad automatic weapon, M-240B machine gun, and .50-caliber machine gun.

• Sock it to them: Swiss defense ministry tests high-tech sweat-absorbing socks for soldiers.

• STG gets $19 million order to help with the BRAC-mandated relocation of US Army’s TRADOC headquarters from Fort Monroe to Fort Eustis, both in Virginia.